Exist In Your Heart
by Shadowthorn2013
Summary: Years after time has stopped being recorded, women are treated as dogs. Men are enslaved until a certain age. There is no such thing as freedom for the poor. Len, a young slave, is sold off to a new Master after rebelling when his sister catches the interest of a very perverted Master. In his new life, he meets Piko - his Mistress's son. Can they free each-other? PikoxLen.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I keep coming with ideas for stories without ever documenting them, and just have the urge to write them xD**

**And they're basically ALWAYS Sci-fi. **

[...]

_Existence... Exactly... What is that? _

_Is it life? Is it fate? Destiny? Just what is 'existence'? Can you possibly exist without living - live without existing? _

_Do I... Exist?..._

[...]

I woke up in bed.

I was drenched in sweat, my head pounding in my chest, my blonde hair falling around my shoulders. I rubbed my head, breathing deeply, trying to remember the dream.

Nothing came to mind.

"Len? Are you okay?" A voice called up to me through the flimsy wooden floorboards beneath my mattress, "I thought I heard you scream."

"I'm fine," I replied, leaning back on my hands, resting my head against the termite-infested wall, "I just had a bad dream, I think."

"Okay." The reply came, before I heard the shuffling of my sister snuggling back under her sheets. I just sat there, staring blankly into space.

I'd heard someone - I knew I had. Was I going crazy at the age of fourteen?

[...]

I can't remember falling back asleep that night - but before I knew it, there was sunlight streaming through the collapsing roof above me, signalling the start of a new day.

"Morning Len!" My sister chirped happily, my bedroom door being pushed open. She was basically the female version of me - petite, with bright blonde hair falling around her shoulders, pushed out of her eyes with two black hair-clips at her fringe, exposing her cerulean eyes.

She wore clothes similar to my usual day clothes - brown shorts with a loose, ragged, sleeveless white shirt. As usual, her face was covered with spots of mud, her exposed elbows scarred and bare with dried blood. Unhygienic by anyone's standards.

"Morning," I said, slipping out of bed and grabbing my pair of shorts, as I usually slept nude to avoid overheating - except in the winter, when Rin and I even resorted to snuggling under the same blanket for heat.

"Two days 'til the master comes," Rin reminded me, her voice betraying no worry, "So we have to work hard, okay~!"

I nodded as Rin ran out, knocking on the door next to me. It wasn't ideal living with twenty other hungry, smelly kids - but it was what we had to deal with. As far as slaves went, we were treated pretty well - we were given rooms to stay in, usually two to a room, but it could be less or more, depending on your behaviour and usefulness.

Luckily for me, I was one of the youngest boys, meaning I wasn't too old enough yet to be seen instantly as a man and pulled out of slavery by the government, but not so young I was completely useless. I was one of the only ones not forced to share a room - not that Rin and I never did.

It's been centuries since time was documented, so I can't even give you a rough estimate of what century it is. Let's just say, the government nowadays is whoever's the biggest, burliest and richest, and the rest of the population are worthless. Somewhere along the line, women were announced to be the same level of use as livestock and, since then, have been kept as 'pets'.

When I say that - I mean literally.

Every woman is micro-chipped at birth, given a collar, name and sent off to some rich man to do god-knows-what for him for the rest of their lives. Men, however, are treated better - given lives, able to work and live like normal, civilized humans.

But since women are seen as so worthless, slave drivers usually try to get hold of orphaned boys, or boys who are so feminine that you wouldn't be able to tell otherwise.

Apparently, I fall into both of those categories.

"Oi, boy, ya gonna stan' there like stunned leman all day or ya gonna get movin'?" A thickly accented voice asked me from the doorway. There stood the twenty-three year old 'Mistress' of the house - Miss Ann.

She was well known for her strange accent, blonde tangles that fell around her perfectly creamy face with blue eyes. Every house had a mistress that was in charge of getting every slave to work on time, injured, sick, even on death's door - it didn't matter.

"Sorry, Miss," I apologised, ducking out of her way. The Mistresses were the girls who, back in their younger years, slept with the slave drivers and did everything they were told. In return, as they grew older, they were given pretty dresses, hygienic stuff.

That's what my sister wanted and, frankly, that scared me.

I went downstairs into the main area - which was where all the girls in the house slept every night. Sheets and mattresses covered every section of the floor, some girls still awake, half-naked or even more exposed, though it didn't cause any blushes from me and wouldn't have with the two other guys living in the house if they'd been present. We were used to it anyway - and we didn't exactly have time to be distracted by those sorts of things. When we were released one day, we'd be able to get our own slave girls and enjoy ourselves then - right?

At least, that's what some of the guys said. I found it sickening to be honest. I only wanted to get out of here, so I could buy Rin and, in a sense, free her.

"'Urry up and get changed ya lot!" Miss Ann called, walking down the stairs, moving her hips in a suggestive way that'd probably become natural by habit.

One of the girls groaned tiredly and Ann lashed out with the whip she always had on her hip, the rope slashing across the girl's bare back, causing her to yelp.

"'Nough complainin'!" Miss Ann barked, "'Urry up! Speakin' o' 'urryin', where be those boys?!"

"I'll get them, Miss!" Rin said obediently from my side, racing off up the stares, despite her feet being sore from days of walking on hard gravel and hot sand.

"I wan' y'all outside in the next ten minutes, ya 'ear me?!" Miss Ann said angrily, pushing the girls out the way as she left the rickety old building, slamming the door shut so hard, the walls shook and saw dust fluttered down into my hair.

Immediately, all the girls rushed over to the girl who had been whipped and was now crying in the corner, or continued to change. I stood there, my mind blank besides a few words in my head.

_Is this existence?_

[...]

**So... Do you think this fanfic needs to become M rated? No lemon, lime, citrus whatever you call it. M purely for the themes of the whole environment they're in. Tell me if you think it's too harsh, because it'll get worse later on...**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Ah! Thanks for the reviews! Just for future reference, yes, this story IS PikoxLen, as well as maybe some other pairings - but the pairings won't play a major part against the storyboard if you suggest them, as everything has actually (for once) been planned out *o***

**Thank you for the revieeeews~**

[...]

_Is my voice heard by anyone?_

_Does anyone care?_

_Can you hear me?_

_Why can't I hear you?_

_Do I want to hear you... Or are you like __**him**__?_

[...]

"Len, wake up," Rin pestered me in a hushed tone, "If you don't, Master will find out and you'll be punished."

Sometime during the bus trip over to the work site, I'd drifted off into a sort of comatose state, only to be brought back by Rin shaking my shoulder roughly.

"I'm awake," I said quietly, yawning, rubbing my head, "I just didn't sleep very long last night."

"Silly," Rin tutted, before getting up and pulling me along, "Come on if we start late we'll be working until dinner!"

"Okay, okay, gosh I'm going as fast as I can." I complained, stumbling off the rusty old bus with three other kids - two of which had bleeding feet, the other of which only had one foot.

We stepped off into a vast area of sand and gravel, various holes covering the sandy area, bricks needing to be moved lying uselessly on the gravel. A half-built tower stretched up into the sky, dominating our view whenever we looked up to see the clouds, which were so waterless, they were just tuffs of thin, white lines.

The tower was simply housing that our slave driver, or Master, as we were supposed to call him, was working on and planning on selling to some rich old fart who'd use it for something useless, like hair styling.

And we were all bleeding for it.

In two days time, another slave driver would come by and buy three slaves that our current Master saw as unfit to continue work. Our slave driver would choose up to ten slaves that had bad behaviour, too many missing limbs, or something else wrong with them, and offer them to the other for a hefty amount of money. Obviously, kids with three limbs missing were probably going to be used for food by the sickest of humans, or... other things, by those even worse.

If you were one of them and you got sold, you knew your life was pretty much over.

Slaves that behaved badly or broke the rules would be sold as a 'once off offer' and were basically always bought, whipped into shape, and made to do the most horrible of jobs - murder among them.

Society sickens me.

As if by some mutual agreement, any guys that had arrived from one of the four houses gathered together by the bricks and started hauling them, using the empty sacks supplied if it needed to be dragged. Some of the older girls helped them, as the other girls quickly set to work digging holes looking for more clay to make the bricks with.

I'd been a slave for four years, and in the whole time, this tower was the only thing we'd ever worked on. At first it was three bricks high - difficult to get the bricks up because I was small. One of the older boys, Gakupo, helped me back then. He was long gone - sold off to someone else because he tried to help his girlfriend Luka escape.

Some thanks Luka gave him - sleeping with Master and becoming a Mistress.

Then again, she probably used him. Everyone uses everyone - and if you don't use someone, then you're probably being used, and you're probably going to end up dead some time soon.

"Len are you just gonna stand there or are you going to actually _help _us?" One of the oldest boys, Kaito, called from where he was trying to help the others haul the stubborn clay brick. I saw Rin chatting with a teal-haired girl under the shade-tent, mixing the moist clay from yesterday into a substance suitable for making bricks.

"Coming," I said, hurrying over to the other boys and grabbing one of the ropes connected to the sack, stepping back and pulling as the two boys younger than me pushed.

Kaito was the only boy I knew that was present - he had blue hair and blue eyes, and, like all of us, was shirtless in the hot weather. Usually, though, you could see him with an over-sized blue scarf, that he'd been allowed to keep in exchange for a week's supper. Somehow, he'd survived, and was basically the only one to have never suffered frost bite.

The day continued in a painful, hot blur of pushing bricks up onto the wall and, when we ran out of bricks, going off and digging holes for hours on end. By the time the sun set, Master had turned up in his flashy car and suit, and was walking over with two body guards that had accompanied him since Gakupo's attack all those years ago.

"Good evening, Master!" Rin said cheerily, her hands covered in drying clay, her fringe smudged from when she'd tried to push the hair out of her eyes.

"Evening, Rin." He said simply, as a few of the girls trying to become a future Mistress sent glares at Rin, who was surprisingly on a first-name basis with the Master.

"Everyone, gather around," Master said, as everyone sat down on the sand, out of Master's way, watching as he stood there, crisp and clean, holding an umbrella to protect his skin from 'evening rays'.

"As you all know, in two days time, a fellow Master will be coming to take three of you to a new home." He said simply.

_More like a new hell_, I thought snidely. I always became a lot more tense and loathful whenever _he _was around.

_'Or are you like __**him**__?'..._

"Tomorrow, I was choose the ten of you that will be offered to him in a way of friendship and trust," He said, "I am confident that those of you chosen will be treated rightly when arriving upon your new home. Remember - you must work especially hard for your Master, no matter who or what they are."

"No matter how they treat you," Everyone else began chiming in, "No matter what they do. Your Master is your Master, through and through."

I'd kept tight-lipped the entire time, not wanting to state my _true _opinion about my 'Master'.

"Master," Luka, the pink haired Mistress that'd betrayed Gakupo, said, leaning over towards him, "Are you planning on choosing a new Mistress to replace Mew as well, soon?"

No-one else could hear the conversation between the two except for me, as I was sitting closer than the others, and my hearing seemed very sensitive lately.

"Can you tell me more about the blonde girl - Rin? She seems up for it, and, if I may so myself, looks quite tasty-"

Sand flew everywhere as mud stained the bastard's suit, my fist colliding right with his cheek, his bones cracking satisfyingly.

"LEN!" I heard Rin yell in disgust and horror, as the two body guards pushed me to the ground, the man claiming to be my Master rubbing his cheek as the skin puffed up under his eye.

"YOU BASTARD!" I screamed at him, "I WON'T LET YOU TOUCH HER!"

I knew I'd done something stupid. Something that would, in the very least, get me shipped off somewhere else, far away, unable to protect Rin.

Or, possibly, if I didn't sell; get me killed.

_...You're not like __**him**__..._

[...]

**A/N: I'm running out of things to write here, so can someone maybe as me questions or something? Yeah - I'll happily answer any questions! Q & A at the end of chapters if I'm asked any questions from now on!**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Q & A at the end of the chapter.**

[...]

I wasn't allowed to work.

I wasn't allowed to do anything.

I hadn't eaten for over a day.

I was hungry - very hungry.

Whatever crazy voice I'd been hearing in my head had disappeared, leaving me with the looping painful memories my sister's innocence, the days before our slavery, and the memories of what I'd seen him _do _to them. The Mistresses, the girls that threw themselves at him - how roughly he treated them. I didn't want that to happen to Rin, but, now, it was going to, wasn't it?

As soon as he found out we were related, she'd pay for my crime with her body and soul, be rewarded for her loyalty in return, or bashed for her betrayal.

_I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, _I pleaded in my mind, _please forgive me, please. Please spare her._

I didn't know who I was pleading to, I just didn't want my sister to have this fate - to be treated like a toy you'd use only once, so you can use it as hard and rough as you want. What was I supposed to do?

Honestly, I didn't even know where I was - it was dark and damp and I was cold and hungry, almost crazy from my thoughts. I could easily as hell blame whatever - that tyrant, the voice in my head that I could somehow say affected me - even though it wasn't true; heck - I could blame Gakupo for influencing me, or Rin for putting herself up as an option in the first place.

But, honestly, the only person to be blamed was the idiot chained up in the dark room, stomach growling, chest scarred with whip marks, freezing cold from the dew clinging to him.

In other words - me.

"It's been two days," A voice informed me at the door, "You've been chosen to appear before the other Master."

My head was too fuzzy to try and recognise the voice - it was one of the Mistresses, I'd gathered that much. Everything was blurring - how long had I consciously drunk something? Was it all forced down my throat before I slept, or had I actually sipped and enjoyed liquid coating my throat in the past two days?

Where had the time gone?

_Isn't it my job to ask questions? _The familiar voice asked me, but it blurred away, making me think I really _was _going crazy. Maybe I'd gone crazy two days ago - maybe I was still dreaming.

The door was pushed open and, for the first time, I saw light. It was Luka - framed perfectly behind the light shining outside. She unclipped my chains, knowing I was way too weak to fight her if I wanted. Lack of food and water did that to you.

"Another foolish traitor," She sighed, sliding her arm around my waist to drag me out of my prison and into a world that, really, was just another prison. Another cage.

"You're the fool," I said quietly, "You're the traitor. You let them drag him away."

"Rebelling is for the weak," Luka said firmly, "And if I were you, I'd shut up, as I'm currently the only one around, and no-one would notice or care if you suddenly died in a heap."

I bit my lip, holding back more insults and sarcastic comments towards the girl that had made my only friend leave. I blinked a few times as my eyes finally adjusted to the light. We'd somehow made it into an area similar to the outside of the tower - with sand and gravel everywhere.

Maybe, the entire world is like that.

Nine kids besides from me were either sitting or standing around. One of the girls was in tears, and it was no wonder, since she only had one arm and no legs at all - just stubs that ended at her knees.

Luka threw me to the ground roughly and I lay there for a few seconds, before someone helped me up. I looked up and saw Kaito, hair ruffled, scarf firmly tied around his neck.

"Kaito?..." I questioned.

"I'm getting too old," He said simply, "The laws in this county will soon see me released - the county this man comes from will allow me enslaved for two more years."

Kaito looked guilt-stricken, like his mother had just died. Two more years. Two more years he wasn't counting on being enslaved.

I recognised the teal-haired girl Rin had been talking to two days ago - she was consoling the one-limbed girl who was crying in the corner.

The majority of the others had major injuries - one's leg was pointing in an odd direction, two of them had missing hands; one even had only one eye.

"If they're from another county, it'll take them a while, right?" I asked. To be honest, I had no idea what a 'county' was. I supposed it was another area of this horrible prison.

Kaito nodded, "They're supposed to be arriving soon though- are you okay? You look like you're going to faint."

"That's because I probably am." I admitted. My head was swirling for so many reasons - another county, another Master, the prospect of being sold, extended slavery time (four more years for me), never seeing Rin again, being executed if I didn't sell, having an actual conversation with someone - and the fact I hadn't had a substancial amount of water for ages and no food for three days was definitely not improving my mind's state.

Finally, a small, old car pulled up, and out stepped a woman. A _woman_. Her cropped brown hair framed her face, her red lips pucked into a sour expressions, her brown eyes staring through us as she scanned our faces. And out behind her stepped a brown-haired man.

I guessed he was the Master and she was just his favourite (possibly only) Mistress. His eyes were framed by weird square frames with glass in them (glasses?), his brown eyes staring up from underneath them. Surprisingly, his face seemed kinder than the woman's.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Sakine," The tyrant who was responsible for all my hell said, stepping forward and holding his hand out towards the woman.

"Please, no need for formalities that involve touching," The woman said, her expression growing sourer. So her name was Sakine. And she seemed more important than the man behind her.

"My apologies," The tyrant said, his mouth drawing a pursed line.

"Oh dear," Sakine said, her sour, hollow eyes drifting across the line of kids lined up, "You're one of _those _suppliers."

"Come again?" The tyrant frowned.

"One of the suppliers that thinks just any old slave will do," She said, taking out white gloves from her pocket and stepping forward. She kicked the one-armed girl, "Useless." She stated, as the girl cried, moving along and cupping the teal-haired girl's face in her gloved hand.

"Petty." She stated, moving along to the next two handless kids, "About as much use as a dog."

Finally, she arrived in front of Kaito, inspecting his face, holding it with two hands, "Hmm. He'll do."

I could see the tremor of fear run through Kaito as she pushed him aside and brown-haired man stepped forward, grabbing him lightly and pulling him away to the car.

Before I knew it, the silky gloves were holding my face in place.

"How old is this boy?" She asked.

"Only fourteen," The tyrant said proudly.

"Why is his condition so rough?"

"He rebelled against me." The tyrant said, his smile fading.

"A rebel?" She asked, her eyes raising in amusement as she turned back to me, lifting my chin so I looked her in the eye, "Why'd you rebel?"

I said nothing, and her hand lashed out across my face.

"Tell me why you rebelled."

"I-I," I stammered, "He- He said he was going to... to do things... To my s-s-sister." I managed to say.

"Is that so, huh?" She grinned, "I'll take this one."

My eyes widened as I felt the brown haired man gently tug me away towards the car, opening the back seat and pushing me in next to Kaito. The tyrant's eyes burned hatred at me.

I rubbed my cheek sorely, as Kaito looked at me in surprise. We both said nothing, though, watching the woman - my new Master - choose the last person. Finally, she settled on a blonde haired boy with one eye.

Three boys? Just how rich _is _this woman?

No questions were asked or answered as the long drive to the woman's home commenced.

_Lucky you. You live a little longer. _

[...]

**Q & A!: **

**Question: How do you get inspiration for your stories? - Missiefish, who PM'd me. (Someone else has probably asked this before too... "._.)**

**Answer: Ah, well, that's kind of hard to answer. Sometimes - usually - it just comes to me in my dreams, other times I get snippets of inspiration from certain animes or other fan fictions, though I never really copy them (hopefully I'm not "._.). Elfien Lied, for example, has given me so many angst filled ideas it's not even funny...**

**I also often think up just one scene in my head, and that turns into a situation, which turns into a series xD Don't ask me how it just does! **

**Please send in some more questions for the next chapter's Q & A!**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Kaito is a penguin.**

[...]

When we exited through the stone tunnel, we'd seemingly travelled to an entirely different world. There was no sand, no gravel, no half-built towers looming over the sky.

There was grass. Flowers. A smooth, pavement surrounding the road, men and a few women walking down the paths. Another universe all together. No-one looked like a slave here; everyone looked rich, happy and well-fed. No torn clothes, no dirt, no grime - I knew of this place.

The Apartments, they called them, the world outside of Hell. The place where rich people lived, slept and worked - their versions of working anyway. It was where you went when you were freed, if you were male. This county - this must be one full of Apartments.

A county full of Masters.

So what were we doing here?

The car pulled to a slow in front of two massive brass gates at the end of town, mounted on a hill that over-looked everything. The hill sloped off into a large forest, the gate cutting off the property from the woods. The brown-haired man stepped out from the car, waving a pass in front of the gates that then swung open, as he climbed back in and drove up the hill.

This, I realised, must be Sakine's house - mansion - and we must be the variety of slaves referred to as 'servants'. Slaves that were issued to do housework instead of the gruelling building I was used to.

Was this a blessing disguised as a curse? Or the other way around?

_You really must stop asking questions, _that voice nagged in the back of my head, _you're supposed to have the answers, after all._

If that's so, then why am I the one who knows nothing?

[...]

"The servant rooms are on the fifth floor, get washed up, change into some fresh clothes and meet downstairs for a meeting to discuss your jobs," Sakine explained firmly, "You will refer to me as 'Mistress' at all times and, if you have nothing to do, you will busy yourself with either dusting, wiping down walls, ceilings and furniture with clothes, cooking, or attending to your other Masters' needs."

The three of us stayed silent, not asking who these other 'Masters' were.

"You are dismissed," She finished, and we headed up the stairs. The mansion was even grander inside than it had been out - long stairs leading off to the many floors above us, rooms upon rooms full of luxurious couches, fireplaces and bookcases. There was no way I'd find my way around this place for a long time yet - if ever.

It was blatantly obvious which floor was considered the fifth. It messier than everything else in the house - even the doormat was cleaner. Dust clung to the curtains, dirtying the air around the windows and dying the room a sort of greyish tinge. You could barely see the sun from the window - as a looming tree blocked any chance of a good view.

Still. I couldn't complain, could I?

The three of us poked our heads into a few doors, until we spotted an older boy - say, 16 - folding sheets.

"Oh!" He said upon seeing us, folding the clothes and quickly dropping them. His white hair framed his pale face, his eyes mis-matching green-blue colours, guilt creeping into his face. Wait - why was he folding _servant _clothes?

"Don't tell my mam I was in here, k?" He grinned, stepping away from the white-sheet covered brass bed he'd been standing by. He certainly wasn't _dressed _like a servant either, with pants that hung around his hips, a proper white shirt going down to his wrists had been pulled up to his elbows, buttoned up all the way.

Before we could ask any questions, he casually waved goodbye to us, passed out into the hall and jogged down the stairs.

"Who was he?" Kaito asked the question on all our lips.

"A Master... I think," I said, frowning, "A Master that was voluntarily folding our clothes..."

"Nonsense," The blonde, one-golden-eyed boy concluded, "Must've been one of the other servants pretending to be all prim and proper - no Master would do that."

I shrugged, grabbing the clothes, "What are we supposed to do?" I asked, as Kaito and the blonde boy moved over to the other brass beds, picking up their sets of already folded clothes.

"She told us to have a wash," Kaito reminded me, just as someone knocked on the wall outside the door. We turned to see a girl with thick, long, black hair falling around her shoulders, an exhausted expression on her face as she sighed.

"Ah, so you're the ones Mistress bought?" She asked, as my eyes travelled down to the bucket she held firmly in two hands, the metal handle contrasting with her tanned skin.

"Ah, yeah," I nodded.

"Oh good, I thought I'd have to check all the rooms," She sighed, dropping the bucket in relief, water slopping out the sides, "This is the water for your wash - just use the cloths in the bucket and wipe yourselves down until you smell fairly decent. If you need to, I can get you some soap - not that much, otherwise Mistress will notice I've been cutting it off - but just enough so she won't complain about your stench and send you back, k?"

_Cutting off soap? _I thought to myself.

"Thanks," Kaito grinned, holding out his hand, "My name's Kaito - what's yours?"

"Mizki - and you smell really awful," The girl said, holding her nose and waving away the stench that had whipped up when Kaito raised his arm, "I'll talk to you guys when you're all bathed and you have shirts-"

She paused, her eyes falling on the scars across my chest, "...Do you need bandages for them?" She asked, gesturing to me with a nod of her head.

"I'm fine," I lied, so she shrugged.

"Okay then, I'll be seeing you all later," She said, heading down the hallway.

"She's cute," Kaito commented. He'd obviously been staring at the short maid dress she wore, complete with an apron and hair-bonnet.

"Whatever you say, Kaito," I rolled my eyes, dragging the bucket into the room and closing the door, fishing around the surprisingly clear water for one of the promised cloths.

"What's your name?" Kaito asked the blonde boy well-naturedly.

"Why do you care?" He snapped back, pushing past the blue-haired fool, sticking his hand in the bucket to find the cloth.

"Hey, we're going to be living with each for at least the next two years," Kaito told him firmly, "We might as well learn to get along, okay?"

"Oliver," The boy said firmly, "Yours?"

The question was obviously directed at me, as his singular golden eye had met mine as we both continued trying to find one of those darned cloths.

"Len," I grumbled, getting on my knees and fishing around to the bottom of the bucket, "Where are those darned cloths...?"

"Found one!" Oliver said triumphantly, pulling my hand out of the bucket, "Oh."

Kaito grinned, pushing Oliver aside as I flicked water off my hand, "Let me handle this, boys."

Kaito leant over the bucket, before sticking his head into it, causing both Oliver and I to watch in amusement as he blew bubbles in the water. Before I knew it, we'd all actually started laughing, as Kaito tossed his hair around, water flicking all over Oliver and I.

We heard creaking footsteps outside and our giggles soon faded, everything falling deadly still for a few seconds. A knock came outside - three, slow knocks to be precise.

"S-s-sorry! I forgot your cloths!" Mizki's exhausted cry came from outside. Kaito got up, scrambling towards the door, obviously seeing this as an opportunity. He pulled the door open.

"Um... Your hair..." Mizki started, "What did you do-?"

"Stuck my head in the bucket trying to find the cloths," Kaito said matter-of-factly, causing Mizki to giggle slightly and hold out three, worn-out black rags.

"Least you didn't pour it out," She smiled, "You may want to hurry, Mistress will be very mad - oh, yeah, I got you this as a make-up for forgetting the rags."

She held out a full bar of mushed-together soap. It was a variety of different colours and scents, all forced together - probably collected throughout years and years of slowly cutting pieces off of soap bars.

"It's my life's worth supply of soap - use as much of it as you like, but make sure there's no arm pit hairs on it when I get it back. Or any _other _types of body hair." She said pointedly, screwing up her face in disgust at the thought.

"Don't worry - I'm sure these two don't even have any," Kaito said.

"Hey!"

Kaito winked at Mizki and she left, closing the door for us.

"I think she's into me," Kaito sighed.

"I think my foot is going to be into something of yours soon," I growled at him and Kaito grinned.

"Isn't that just a _little _kinky for a fourteen year old, Len~?" He teased as Oliver looked at us in mild confusion.

"You know what I meant!"

[...]

It took us a while to bathe, as Oliver insisted we look away from him the entire time, but when we finally did finish, having soaped down and all, we all smelt and looked a lot better.

The uniforms we had were bland and gray, with low collars and shorts, white socks and small, black shoes. I had to admit - Oliver and I didn't look to bad in it, but Kaito looked absolutely repulsive dressed in it; mainly because it was three sizes to small and hugged him in _all _the wrong places.

We headed downstairs, just as told, to the main room where we arrived in. Sakine was waiting for us, tapping her foot impatiently. I noticed now that Mizki and another girl - one with long, blonde hair - were standing next to her, looking at their feet, wearing matching maid outfits.

"You took a while," Sakine said, "I know it was mainly due to Mizki's incompetence," She shot a look at the black-haired girl, who whimpered, "But you could've been faster, I'm sure."

"Sorry, Mistress," Oliver mumbled quietly, causing Sakine to raise an eyebrow.

"Is that it? 'Sorry'?" She asked, before laughing to herself, "From now on 'sorry' won't cut it. You must do what you're told, when you're told, regardless if you have the right tools to do so."

"Yes, Mistress."

"Now, for your jobs. Have any of you had experience in cooking before?" She asked. We all stayed silent for a few moments, "Well?"

"No, Mistress," Kaito admitted, as did Oliver. Her eyes fell on me.

"What about you, _rebel_?" She asked me firmly. It had already become obvious why my rebellion against my previous Master didn't bother you - the place's security was stunning, with the high gates surrounding the entire property, you needing a pass to exit. Even if I rebelled, I wasn't going to get anyway very quickly.

"I used to cook," I admitted, "But that was over five years ago-"

"Don't give me excuses!" She snapped and I jolted, "You will be in charge of waking at dawn to fix me a breakfast daily - if it's quality is anything less than amazing, you will be punished."

"Yes, Mistress," I said quietly.

"Now, as for my daily bubble bath," She began, turning to Kaito, "You, blue-haired boy, you will wake at the same time as the rebel and prepare my bath - third door on the right, third floor. You will have the water boiled to a just above luke-warm tempature, you will sanitise it, fill my bath with bubbles and soaps and prepare my make-up set for Lily to craft my look."

Kaito nodded, as Sakine moved onto issuing Oliver the job of cutting the hedges that grew around the gates. My thoughts were drifting to that last time I'd cooked - I'd been nine, and it'd been literally days before my inslavery. Days before my parents died, and Rin and I became orphaned and poor, unable to stay living in the small old house we called home. We'd lived somewhere else - another county I supposed. I hadn't known it was a county when I was nine.

But that was five years ago. I hadn't had a decent meal since then, and barely knew any recipes or how to cook anything decently. I just hopped the punishments didn't involve whips, but, really, I wouldn't put it past Sakine.

[...]

Luckily, two other girls were issued to cook dinners for the four Masters, and us servants folded their bed sheets and cleaned their rooms ready for them to return after dinner.

Four Masters - I had to learn their faces, preferences and how harsh they were. Not that much different from the Mistresses I used to have. Some of them would give you more food if you were good, others would whip you if you looked at them funny. I supposed Sakine was the type to whip you on a whim, and she was obviously the head of the household.

I'd been issued to go and clean Sakine's son's bedroom with Oliver, who was silent as ever. It was kind of his main trait.

"You make the bed, I'll put away his belongings," Oliver said. I nodded.

Pushing into the room we'd been issued, I almost gasped. The bed sheets were a dark black, with a fancy white dresser in the corner of the room, books cluttering up the boy's bed, littered with bookmarks and sticky notes, messy writing scrawled on the yellow papers. '2 Octaves lower' was one of the most readable notes.

"He has a lot of books," I commented, as Oliver began folding and putting away clothes, the drawers being labelled with 'underwear', 'shirts' and 'pants'.

"So?" Oliver asked lamely, "There's book everywhere in this house."

That was true, but never had there been such a sheer amount in one place. The entire back wall of the boy's room had been crafted into a book shelf, where books upon books were stacked. So much to read - I wondered if he'd read them all? Having nothing to do all day, it may be a possibility.

"Put the books back on the shelf," Oliver told me, putting away three shirts. I nodded, making sure all the bookmarks and notes were straight and proper, stacking them all together and laying them on the white bedside. I frowned upon finding a black, plastic folder and curiously flipped it open.

The folder was filled with drawings on pieces of ashen paper. They were all strikingly realistic - pictures of Sakine looking moody and imposing, pictures of the brown-haired that, despite centering on him, managed to make him look as if he were fading into the background, even pictures of other servants, like Mizki and the blonde girl who I assumed was Lily. You could easily tell who was a Master and who was a servant, yet he never drew them differently. The servants had as much love and care put into the picture of any other. The only one that looked rushed was Sakine's.

I supposed, maybe he didn't really like his mother.

"Len, what are you doing?!" Oliver snapped, ripping the folder from my hands and thrusting it into the pile of books, "We can't look through their belongings!"

"Sorry," I said guiltily, as the door was pushed open, revealing Sakine's unusual son.

[...]

**Q & A!: **

**Question: How would you deal in that type of universe that abuses women? - YellowFluffiesForever22**

**Answer: Personally, I would hate living in that type of universe because I already hate sexism and I can get reaaaaally snarky at people who act like that. I suppose I'd probably be a rebel and punch my Master - in other words, I'd pretty much be dead in the first few weeks...**

**I'll answer more questions next time - not answering them all in one chapter in case I end up running out of questions xD**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: I just realised... This series could go on virtually forever... xD Not that I'm complaining, as I have a really good storyboard for it!**

[...]

The white haired boy grinned at us when he saw we were yet to finish, our eyes wide open at his entrance. _Those eyes... How is it possible to have different coloured eyes?_

"See you're taking your time then," He said cheekily, easily sliding past us as bumping the jarred open drawer shut with his hip, before collapsing on his bed happily. Oliver was red in the face - no wonder, he'd thought one of our Masters was just a cocky servant. From the look in the son's eyes, he knew that Oliver had obviously thought of him wrong.

"What?" He asked, "Is there something in my teeth?"

"Eh- No!" Oliver stammered, turning even more red as the son grinned wider.

"Actually, there is something," I said, "A little bit of green stuff."

The son raised his eyebrow at me, asking me very casually, "Where?"

"In between your two front teeth," I told him, not feeling uneasy around him at all for some reason. He gave off this sort of laid-back aura that told me he was fine to talk to like an equal. Oliver looked at me worriedly.

"Ah, thanks," He said, picking the green stuff out from his teeth and sucking it off his thumb, "Ew, brocolli."

"We'll be going now," Oliver said, bowing respectfully to the son as we headed out.

"Not so fast," The son spoke up, causing Oliver and I to both stop in our tracks. Was I wrong in assuming he was safe to talk to?

"Yes, Master?" Oliver asked, though I could see the worry in his eyes.

"I've got a job for you to do," He said, pointing at me, "You're dismissed, though."

Oliver pushed out the door as I turned to face him.

"Yes?" I asked, trying to act formal.

"Drop being formal," He grinned, "What's your name?"

"Len," I said simply, before going far enough as to ask his, "Yours?"

"Piko," He replied simply, "Age?"

"Fourteen."

"You're young," He noted, "Why were you offered to my mam?"

"I rebelled against my previous Master." I said, becoming tight-lipped. Piko obviously sensed that was a sensitive subject by the way his face softened, "What do you want me to do, Master?"

Piko shrugged, "Nothing really, I just wanted to get that sour puss out of my room and I'm always so bored just sitting in here reading. Besides - me wasting your time is stopping my mam or any of the others from making you do something horrible like scrub the toilet, right?"

He grinned cheekily, patting the bed beside him, "If anyone asks, I'll say you were organising clothes for me."

I sat next to him uneasily, feeling uncomfortable for some reason; maybe it was because he was just _so _casual. Like the world was at perfect peace, like slavery and other troubles didn't reach him - maybe that was it. Maybe they didn't.

"So, what do you like doing?" He asked.

"I dunno," I admitted, "I haven't 'done' anything except for lifting and digging for years."

"Oh." He said, leaning back in consideration for a few moments, "What did you like doing then?"

"...Reading, I suppose," I said quietly, "My parents used to bring home all sorts of things for us to use, and I always loved reading adverts on cans, or the labels on clothes and I used to tell my sister stories all the time-"

I stopped; my sister. Rin. The girl who was probably paying for my rebellion.

"Hey, are you okay?" He asked as I blinked a few times.

"Yeah..." I said, "Just hungry and thirsty - it's been two days since I ate..."

"That's not good," Piko said, genuine concern in his voice, frowning for a moment, "Ah, I know. Go downstairs and get me a packet of chips, they're in the top cupboard."

Get _him _a packet of chips? While _I'm _starving? Is he serious?

"Yes, Master," I said, almost instinctively, getting up and walking down the stairs into the kitchen.

"What do you want?" A green-haired girl snarled as I entered, "Servants aren't allowed in the kitchen without a Master's-"

"Master sent me down here to get him some chips," I told her and she looked at me with slight suspicion.

"Fine," She said, "But you better take them straight to Master! No light snacking!"

I nodded, grabbing a packet of chips from the top cupboard and heading upstairs, knocking on Piko's door. He opened it, took the packet of chips from my hands before sticking his head out and looking both ways, then tugging me inside.

He closed the door and popped open the bag of chips, handing it to me and jumping back onto his bed.

"Eat," He insisted, and I did so, taking a chip from the packet and popping it in my mouth, crunching into it and letting the foreign flavours take me.

"Wow, these are good!" I enthused, crunching them.

"They're banana flavour," He told me, "It may seem like a strange choice for chips, but my mam buys all the weird foods."

"I love them," I concluded and Piko laughed, "What's so funny?"

"You're cute!" He exclaimed, causing me to blush.

"I'm not cute!" I denied. He grinned.

"Of course you're not." He said, a part of him subconsciously reading out for a piece of paper lying on his bedside, a pencil and something to lean on.

"Hey, what're you doing?" I asked grumpily, my mood dampened from being called 'cute'.

"Drawing you," He said matter-of-factly, "Unless you have a problem with that?"

"...Not really," I said, standing there awkwardly, munching on the banana chips.

"You mentioned your sister before," He stated, "What's she like?"

I thought of Rin - cute, pretty, polite, eager; to sum it up, exciteable.

"She's nice." I said offly, not really wanting to talk about her.

"I had a sister," She said, drifting off for a few seconds, "But mam sold her off."

"That's horrible." I frowned, "Why'd she sell her off?"

"She's a woman, right?" Piko sighed, leaning back and rubbing something white against the paper, brushing off dust-like particles.

"But, your _mother _is a woman," I said pointedly.

"Yeah, but my mam has double standards everywhere," Piko pointed out, "The men in this household are treated worse in most cases, yet she still apparently abides by anti-woman laws, even though she treats herself the best. Hypocricy is her specialty."

_Men are treated worse, huh? _I noted that. It was kind of like a warning.

"...What was your sister like?" I asked quietly, almost as if I had to say, but didn't really want him to hear it.

"She was..." He trailed off, "I don't know how to describe her really - she always had a smile on her face and was always full of positive thoughts and words, I suppose. She was also really exciteable and eager, kind to everyone - even mam when she sold her off. 'See you later', she'd said when mam sold her, almost as if she was just going to someone else's house for a visit..."

Piko stopped, staring at the paper for a few moments. Everything about that reminded me of Rin - every detail; kind to even the girls that pushed her on the way out of the bus, kind to the Mistresses after she'd been whipped. Little Ms Positive.

"I never drew her," Piko admitted, looking back up at me, "So, from now on, I've made a deal with myself to draw every person I meet, just in case they become special to me - even if they don't, I'll always be able to remember them and the type of person they were."

I smiled at him, "You've really drawn everyone?"

"Everyone," He nodded, "This is my second folder - the other one's over in my drawers under my socks, as I used to draw a few slave girls that walked around outside. My mam got mad about that and destroyed half of them - she says I shouldn't know anyone outside of this household."

I pulled his drawer open curiously, taking out the folder and flipping it open. Girls and boys of all ages - varying from as young as five, the poorest of servants, to Masters, looking prim, proper and quite often, self-absorbed as hell.

My eyes lingered on one girl - about nine years old. Her black hair was pulled back in pigtails, and she was dressed in a blue skirt with over-all like straps on her shoulders, covering her white shirt. Her hands were clasped behind her back, as she talked happily to herself.

"Who's this?" I asked.

"Yuuki Kaai," Piko explained, "She's the daughter of a richman who lives down the road - his one and only child, as his wife died when Yuuki was really little."

For someone who wasn't supposed to interact with the outside world, Piko seemed to know a lot about her.

"She and her father come over for dinners occasionally," He added, "That's why I know her. She's a little loopy though, so if you meet her, stay out of her way, okay? She's known to lash out against people she doesn't know."

I nodded, closing the folder and slipping it back under the socks, making sure it was completely concealed before edging the folder back.

"It's getting late," Piko said, "You're in charge of my mam's breakfasts, right? She said the 'rebel' was cooking for her, so I assume that's you. You have to get up early."

"Right," I nodded, before bowing, "Thank you for allowing me to eat, Master."

"It's Piko, Len," He grinned, "Piko - not Master."

[...]

"What took you so long?" Oliver demanded impatiently as I climbed the stairs to the fifth floor. He was standing impatiently in the halls, tapping his foot against the floorboards.

"I was organising Master's clothes," I said.

"_Organising _them?" Oliver asked furiously, "But _I _put them away already! Oh fine - whatever, just hurry up! Everyone's waiting for you!"

"...Everyone-?" I asked, as Oliver dragged me off to the bedroom and pushed it open.

"Hey, Len!" Kaito called and my jaw just about dropped. Crowding into just one small room was over twenty servants, eating the few plates of food stolen from downstairs, left on the bed. There was little room left to breathe and move, to be honest.

"Len, nice to meet you - name's Ring! I do all the laundry, so tell me if you need some clean undies, mmk?" A girl with blue hair said happily - she kind of reminded me of the teal-haired girl Rin was hanging out with. _Rin. I really need to stop thinking of her._

"Name's Al - I do all the wood-cutting out back." A boy who had to at least be seventeen said and I couldn't help but notice a long scar along his forehead - punishment or accident?

Introductions continued - names racing past me.

Lui was Ring's secretive boyfriend and the boy in charge of all the shopping - he had unforgettable honey-coloured hair, and seemed to spritely I doubted I'd forget him anyway.

Cul was in charge of feeding the horses (who knew they had horses?), she had long red hair and seemed like a no nonsense type of person, though she didn't seem to be unloyal.

Lily - the blonde from before - was Sakine's personal favourite, in charge of her looks and beautification; she didn't seem like the sweetest, kindest of people, so I made the decision to stay away from her; by the looks of it, everyone else did - Lui even told me she was considered Sakine's spy.

Neru was apparently the girl that knew all - it was her job to go out and do outside errands for Sakine, so she knew all the townspeople and gossip. She also seemed nice enough, especially when she said to come to her for assistance with anything.

Other names flew past me - Galaco, Lola, Yuzuki; lots and lots of names that I couldn't keep up with. I supposed I may re-call them later.

All of us stayed for at least half an hour before returning to our rooms to go to sleep, some, like Lui, Ring and Mizki, stayed longer. Mizki was soon giggling in the corner, exchanging jokes with Kaito as Oliver had already prepared himself for bed and was smothering himself with the single pillow he was given, trying to block out the giggles from Mizki and Kaito, and the constant flirting or kissing from Ring and Lui.

I lay in bed, my thoughts drifting through the events of the day - a new place to call 'home', a new job, a new life; and it was only the beginning.

[...]

**Q & A:**


End file.
